A/N My ninth fanfiction! Woot!!
This one turned out to be something complete different than what I set out to write. Which was a really good Kashiwagi hate piece. But it just went somewhere else. Sorry, blame the coffee ;)
Why is nobody offering to teach me English? Free coffee included...
Anyway. Please enjoy, yet yet yet again, Yumi and Sachiko doing their thing.
Slap
"Why haven't you told her that you love her yet?"
"Youko-sama!"
"Would you calm down Yumi-chan? You act as if everybody didn't know already."
"Youko-sama!"
"Yumi-chan, every time you even draw near Sachiko. It's as if you draw every ounce of energy in the room to fuel your love. If you thought for a second that people didn't notice, you are far sillier than I thought. E v e r y b o d y knows." She pushed ever syllable.
"...I-I know" Yumi looked down in embarrassment. "I-I can't help it. I tried but, I just can't help it..."
"You love her very much, don't you?" Youko smiled a little at the girl's embarrassment.
Yumi didn't say anything for a second, then a small nod "...yes..." She said meekly.
"Yumi," Youko put a hand on Yumi's shoulder. "You are in love with Sachiko, isn't that so?" She said it soft.
Yumi's eyes grew big and frightened for a split-second, then they mellowed. "Yes..." She gave a little forlorn smile. "I'm not sure how or when but. When I found out, I realised that I probably had been for a long time..."
"I see." Youko looked at her fondly. "Yet you haven't told her?" It wasn't really a question.
Yumi shook her head, sending the pigtail's flying. "No! Impossible! I could never!"
"Oh" Youko made a little pout. "And why is that?"
"Youko-sama! Stop teasing me."
Youko drew a deep breath. "But I am not Yumi. It is the only thing she needs to know in this hopeless darkness of hers."
"But... I don't even know if my feeling's reach her. If she even likes me, that way..."
"True, but what does your heart tell you?"
"...I don't know."
Youko came close, and she put her hand on Yumi's chest, startling Yumi some.
"Yumi" She spoke very gently. "What does it tell you?"
Yumi looked at her a little shyly, then closed her eyes, and after a second or two, she smiled gently.
"Yes..." Youko whispered as she saw the little smile.
Yumi opened her eyes and sighed. "It wouldn't matter anyway. She is going to marry Kashiwagi"
"So, what...? Will you let her rot in that marriage all by herself? Left alone with that imbecile Kashiwagi?"
"There doesn't seem to be any other way. She is adamant about going through with it and... and she would never let me come... It would hurt her feelings or..." Yumi looked miserable.
Youko used her hand under Yumi's chin, lifting her gaze. Yumi looked her straight in the eyes, and it made her quite uncomfortable. A mad Youko was not something you wanted to be left alone with.
"Yumi? Do you really love her?" Youko spoke the words softly, but with enough push on each vowel, to make it absolutely clear, that she was meaning business.
Yumi spoke more or less per reflex under that gaze.
"Yes."
"Yumi?"
Yumi tried swallowed once, but having no spit, it just made for an uncomfortable grating of her tongue.
"Youko-sama. It may sound as if the word has a superfluous meaning when I say it like that. But you must try and understand. Coming this far in my own understanding, of me, of my own sexuality, of Sachiko and my feelings for her. It has taken many days, weeks and months, and many many sleepless nights... There is absolutely nothing in this world, as I know it, Youko-sama, that I would not do to have Sachiko's love. And to be with her. If it be in a marriage with Kashiwagi or a cell in hell. I wouldn't care. I love her, with all that I am. She is the reason I breathe from I wake up till I fall asleep."
Youko blinked. "My!... I guess I got my answer." She blinked ones more. "You certainly have grown up, Yumi." She took Yumi and pulled her into an embrace, resting her cheek on her head. She could feel small tremors going through the petite frame of Yumi from her previous emotional outpour.
"Now then. What to do... what to do..." She muttered under her breath. Not even loud enough for Yumi to hear.
//-----------------//
"Why haven't you told her that you love her yet?"
"Onee-sama!"
"Would you calm down Sachiko? You act as if everybody didn't know already."
"Onee-sama!"
"Oh, would you grow up Sachiko!" Youko had turned and almost shouted the words.
Sachiko just blinked a few times.
Youko made a deep sigh and massaged the ridge of her nose, right where it met her brow.
"You really are a fool..." She said the words low, with a sad hint. She looked up and walked over to Sachiko.
"You ignorant fool... This girl loves you with every goddamn fibre of her little frame, and what do you do? You piss it all away by playing the princess who has no say in whatever charade it is her family has planed for her." Youko's voice had gone up a notch during her little outburst.
"O-onee-sama..." Sachiko was a little taken aback, but it wasn't as if she hadn't seen Youko emotional before.
"What are you talking about Onee-sama? And I would like it if you didn't..."
"I don't bloody care what you would like! Because what you would like is so goddamn stupid it's downright silly!" Youko was glaring at her with fire in her eyes.
"Even if you go through with this charade of yours, that doesn't mean it's the end of your life! Don't you get that!? Have you not for one tiny fraction of a second thought about what you would do after you get married, other than sit and cry 'boohoo, it's all over now'!?"
Sachiko seemed a bit dazed. Then she blinked. "Well if you are just going to stand there and insult me, Onee-sama, I see no reason..." And she turned as if to leave.
Youko took a quick two steps forward, grasped Sachiko wrist and spun her around.
"Oh no you don't! Don't you dare think you are just going to brush me off because you think the conversation doesn't fit into you little box of prettiness!" She now had Sachiko's undivided attention. Well, how could one not after that.
"O-Onee-sama. Let go of me!" She made a twist with her arm, breaking free. "I've had just about enough of this. My personal life..."
"Is also my life..." Youko said softly, butting in.
Sachiko looked up and saw Youko look at her affectionately.
The room was quiet for just a moment. Then Sachiko relaxed and drew a deep breath. She was with the woman who had picked her up in a time where no one in the world seemed to care for her. Had made her a petite soeur and actually listened to her opinions.
I'm sorry Onee-sama I-I... Onee-sama... How do I even know for certain if she shares my feelings? I mean I think... When we touch and..." Sachiko fell quiet.
"I asked her." Youko said quietly with a mirthful smile.
Sachiko just looked at her with big eyes.
"Yeah, why not?" Youko made a little quick motion with her shoulders, up and down, as if it had been no big deal.
Sachiko swallowed "And?..." The word was no more than a croak.
Youko walked to her and drew a deep sigh. "You really are hopeless some times. You know, speaking with your petite soeur is so much more..." Youko took Sachiko by the shoulders. "If that little body of hers would have any more love for you, it would simply burst." She looked Sachiko straight in the eyes. "Do you understand me Sachiko?"
Youko didn't waver one bit in the look, in which Sachiko was looking for anything that might contradict the words that had jst been spoken.
"If you would try and make her live a life that didn't revolve around you, she would simply wither and die. Do you understand?" Youko waited a second, then shook her. "Answer me Sachiko. Do you understand?"
"O-One-s..." Sachiko's words faltered.
"She saved no love for anyone else." Youko looked down a little, as if remembering. "She..." Youko's voice was almost a gentle whisper. "She is what all of us search for in life, and so very very few of us ever find."
She suddenly looked up at Sachiko with dangerous fire in her eyes again.
Without thinking Sachiko took a step back, as if that single step would take her from a raging fire.
"You are a fool." Youko said again, almost as a growl. And with a flat hand, she smacked Sachiko, hitting her squarely on the side of the head.
The slap sent Sachiko reeling, her mind went blank and her vision black. The pain shot like knives through her head.
If Youko hadn't caught her, she would have been on the floor. In a quick movement Youko had her in close, an arm around her and the other steadying Sachiko's head as she slowly gained consciousness.
As Sachiko began to focus her senses, and her vision. She found herself in a hug with her assailant, looking at her with more love that she had ever seen in Youko. The pain in her cheek was spreading and she saw small stars in her vision.
"You will love her back." Youko's voice was as gentle as could be, but the embers in her eyes left little doubt. "If you go into that charade of a marriage. You will need her. She will be the backbone of you. She will always support you, no matter what. She will always be the arms you can cry on. The arms accepting you regardless. She will be the gentle touch at night and she will be the one whispering you words of love when you need them most." Youko's eyes turned a little sad.
"It is the wish of her very being, Sachiko. And I know it is yours too. You go play your damn charade... and you take her with you."
Without further ado, Youko let go and headed for the door. Sachiko had to use all her powers to steady herself, or her wobbly legs would have buckled under her.
Youko turned in the door. "Put some ice on that Sachiko. It's going to hurt for a while. But I want you to remember our little chat every time it does." And then she was gone.
Sachiko looked at the door for a bit, then stumbled towards one of the chairs and called for her maid outside the door.
"Bring me some Ice."
//-----------------//
"Onee-sama!" Yumi had entered the Rose Mansion the next day, to find Sachiko with a swollen handprint on her cheek.
"What happened to you, Onee-sama?" Yumi had let the bag and papers she was carrying fall as they may, as she rushed to Sachiko's side.
"Onee-sama had something to say to me, that's all." Sachiko smiled a little forlorn.
"Youko-sama did this!?"
Sachiko chuckled. "Yes. She can be quite direct that woman..."
Yumi couldn't help but think, that whatever it was that had Sachiko smiling after having been hit like this, was something she probably wouldn't understand, so why ask.
She hurried to the fridge for some ice, which she wrapped in a small towel and came back.
"I'm sorry Onee-sama" She looked positively miserable as she knelt by her chair. "But this may hurt a little" And she ever so gently held it to Sachiko's cheek.
"Uh..." The little exclamation was almost a slap for Yumi.
"I-I'm sorry, Onee-sama"
Sachiko chuckled slightly. "It's not you, Yumi it's just sore. Here, wait a second." And she pushed the chair out, turning it a bit towards Yumi.
"Do it again Yumi, I promise to sit still." And she gave Yumi a little reassuring smile.
So for some time Sachiko was in the care of a doting Yumi, who felt miserable that her Onee-sama was in pain. In that moment in time, Yumi hated Youko-sama with fervour and if Youko had entered the Rose Mansion right now, she would have been dead before her 'gokigenyou' was done.
Sachiko was speculatively following Yumi in her caring of her as they, for a time, talked of this and that. And then, as if she was standing right there, Sachiko heard Youko in her head, mad as anything with her "You are a fool", and then followed by the proverbial slap.
Sachiko put her hand on Yumi's, Making Yumi look from Sachiko's cheek to the blue depths of her sapphire eyes. Yumi's own where big, soft, caring, and brimming with love.
"O-Onee-sa..ma...?" Sachiko's silent gaze was enough for Yumi to blush deeply.
Sachiko made a little move, putting her on the edge of her seat. And then she leaned down, and let her nose gently rest next to Yumi's
"Is this really what you want, Yumi?" The words were not much more than a whisper.
Yumi's body was in a state of turmoil, but the words did register. Her mind went into overdrive to find a meaning to the actions and the words of Sachiko. And every time they came back with an answer that just couldn't be real. Though, that was the only solution, the only answer, and she knew by heart, what she would answer to a question like that, from Onee-sama.
"...yes..." The word only barely perceptible in the still room.
And then Sachiko pressed her lips against Yumi's in a soft kiss. For just a second. But a second was enough for Yumi to respond. And as Sachiko tried to move her head back, she felt Yumi following her lips back.
Yumi quickly stood up and stepped in between Sachiko's legs. And as she leaned in, she cupped Sachiko's cheeks, and for a while, they kissed all the kisses of broken dreams, the kisses of neglect, of need, of hope lost and dark futures away. And in the end, when the soothing kisses of confirmation, the slow ease of just being two, the knowing that you would newer be alone again, the certainty of love having been answered set in, in that very instant Rei and Yoshino stepped in.
"Gokige..."
//-----------------//
"You slapped her!?"
"A really nice one too. You should go see her, just to see the imprint I bet it made."
"But why?"
"At the time it seemed like a good Idea. To be honest, it was an emotional impulse. Sometimes she can just be so damn..."
"Yes, I know what you mean... And now?"
"I actually think it was a good thing. Yumi will undoubtedly care for her in her pain, and the pain will keep reminding her of what I told her."
"You do amaze me sometimes, Youko... And what about the girl, Yumi?"
"It was as you said. Not that any well functioning homo sapiens on the planet, in their right mind could be in any doubt anyway."
The laughter was sincere and affectionate
"I'm glad. She is a wonderful girl.
"Yes."
"Do you think that she might truly be the one?"
"Yes. I did from the first moment I saw her. She is a fountain of love, and in all that water stands only Sachiko."
"She will need it. She may not look like it, but she is very insecure. She will need support in the years ahead."
"She will have it now."
"Thank you Youko.
"No Sayako-obasama. I did nothing. The real work will be yours in this idiotic charade of your husbands and his fathers."
"Yes. I will try and do my best."
//-----------------//
Thank you very much for reading. It's all I hope for when I write. Please feel free to tell me what you thought of the piece in the comments. I would love whatever thoughts, praise or critique you might throw at me ;)